Sunday, May 31, 2009

Live Blogging The Sprint Cup Series From Dover On Fox

This final Sprint Cup Series race on Fox has suddenly emerged as one with multiple storylines underway. There has to be a mix of apprehension and excitement at the TV crew prepares for four hours at Dover.

NASCAR's Ramsey Poston announced that the decision had already been made to stop the race at lap 30 and check the tires. Saturday, the CWTS event turned into a disaster for Goodyear and NASCAR with right side tires blowing before a full fuel run was complete. Added to that problem were the current rules of choosing either fuel or tires on each pit stop in the truck series.

There was another major rainstorm on Saturday night at the track was scrubbed clean of the small amount of rubber put down by the Nationwide and CWTS events. Dover is a concrete track and the fear is that the COT will scrub the rubber off the right side tire very quickly on this abrasive surface.

Added to this mix is the continuing Dale Earnhart Jr. story. Lance McGrew was supposed to be starting in his role next week, but since Brad Keselowski did not make the Cup race, McGrew will be on Junior's pit box this Sunday along with multiple Hendrick Racing veterans.

Kyle Busch dominated both the Nationwide and CWTS races on Saturday and didn't win either one. Fox continues to focus on Busch and it should be interesting to see how DW handles this issue on the final race for the network of the season.

Dover makes good pictures, especially from the low level speed shots. Those are the cameras that do not move and let the cars fly by with great audio. Remember, Dover has two bridges over the track at each end of the backstretch. One mandatory TV element is to eliminate these two structures from the telecast.

The only times that the two bridges will be seen are from the aerial shot and also when a driver's in-car camera is being used. Look carefully on the shots from the roof, out the front window and out of the rear of the car to see the bridges fly by.

Digger's last day should be interesting. Recently, the animated character has been pulled back a bit after fans made it clear they had reached the breaking point. That is perhaps the biggest issue, how to judge just how much of something like this is enough. Look for the final cartoon, the animation over restarts and the still shot of Digger on the low-level cameras.

This TV team is the most experienced of all the NASCAR TV partners. Chris Myers will lead Darrell Waltrip and Jeff Hammond onto the air from the Hollywood Hotel at 1:30PM for the pre-race show. This should set the tone for how Fox is going to approach the race today.

Larry McReynolds posted on Twitter that the theme of the race today for the NASCAR on Fox team was going to be having fun. That may be tough with tire problems, Junior stories and Kyle Busch on a rampage. Add to that a couple of hard crashes and Dover may become exactly what is almost always is, a big grind for all concerned.

Mike Joy, McReynolds and Waltrip should be on the air around 2PM and the green flag flies fifteen minutes later. Krista Voda, Steve Byrnes, Matt Yocum and Dick Berggren will handle pit road. This is the cream of the crop where TV pit reporters are concerned and this race will certainly keep them busy.

This post will serve to host your comments about the Sprint Cup Series from Dover on Fox. To add your TV-related opinion, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting.

Based on the Truck race and the overnight rain this race definitely has an Indianapolis feel to it. I sure hope I'm wrong though.

It should be interesting to see what tone the TV crew sets during the pre-race show. Will we get serious analysis and a preview for a potential disaster, or will we get cartoons, goofiness, and a complete disregard for reality?

Eury Jr. wasn't fired. He was reassigned. There is a big difference. ESPN had a "fired" headline earlier this week and now Fox has used graphics that say the same thing. I am not a Jr. fan per-se, but I think accuracy is important no matter who you are talking about.

What is with DW throwing his"JuneBug" under the bus. Guess he cannot stop the Kyle Bush admiration society long enough to realize who he is supposed to be a friend to. Unbelievable. And the remark about that race car driver's don't have any original thoughts so Kyle HAD to hear other drivers bashing Jr... So sad to see how far someone will stoop just to "support" the driver of the moment.

I sure was hoping the payoff to the Digger cartoon segments would the security animal thing blowing that Digger hole to oblivion. No such luck. But yes I know, David Hill is right about Digger and all the NASCAR fans, NASCAR print media, NASCAR electronic media, and even the unnamed high-ranking NASCAR official referenced in the USA Today article are all wrong.... just like hockey fans were "wrong" about the glowing hockey puck and baseball fans were "wrong" about Scooter... right before those other failed ideas were also scrapped.

I'm at work and only have TSN as an option for watching the pre-race show. Again, TSN is showing French Open tennis instead of the pre-race bumpf. This is turning out to be a problem for them. I have no program guide at work, so I can't tell if TSN has shunted the pre-race off to TSN2.

I'm OK with it, though. I think tennis fans should get to see the end of their match. I'd be cranky if TSN decided to cut off the last 30 laps of a race to broadcast a pre-match tennis show.

Where was the love for Reutimann coming off his FIRST career win? Instead you talk about a crew guy and Tony Stewart, as well as Dale Jr? Again no serious discussion on Mayfield shocks me too.

Maybe they are taking my position on it which is no opinion until more comes out, but they are the media...aren't they supposed to speculate? After all they just got Lance McGrew getting fired before season's end?

Wow...this perhaps isnt a horrible anthem? Maybe there is a silver lining to this cloud called FOX.

Tony Jr wasnt FIRED. FIRED means he no longer works for Hendrick. Fact is he was REASSIGNED. That isnt a sensitive way of saying fired, they are two different things.

You use a word like FIRED because you are spinning the story and placing blame on his shoulders. Kyle Busch's comments in that respect werent too far off in my eyes judging how the media has played this up this week.

I watered and fed the birds & other various wildlife during the Digger cartoon.

Surprised also to hear DW say that about drivers' don't have an original thought to Kyle's attitudinal comment on Jr. DW should explain himself as it did sound like a putdown to his beloved Junebug. Ouch.

And don't get me started on Tony Jr being "fired".

I bed Jr wish he could drive under the Witness Protection Program for a few weeks.

That segment from "miami" was lame.

A "Fox Cup"? Are you kidding me.

A somebody said, thank goodness for TNT next week.

Now if TNT/NBC only had the money for the last half of the season as opposed to what we are gonna get.

For those interested, reminder the IRL is on ABC today so those WITHOUT VERSUS can watch..think it's 3.30 EST.

bevo...im starting to hop on the blame goodyear wagon lately because of this. When racetracks that havent been resurfaced or repaved are having issues keeping rubber that signals a red flag to the manufacturer...

Are you implying that NASCAR fans might prefer seeing live green flag racing over pre-taped footage of a driver playing the drums?

I sure would love to see the stick-and-ball fans' reactions if the ABC production truck missed even a few seconds of live NBA Finals action with a taped video of Kobe Bryant playing the drums or if the Fox MLB production truck missed a few pitches by coming back from break with a video of A-Rod screaming through a megaphone "This is MLB on Fox!"

It sure is disappointing that this production truck thinks it is better to show small snippets of the 16, 43, and 00's pit stops one after another in one box rather than using a triple-pit split that could have shown us all 3 stops in their entirety.

Giving the viewers less instead of more is not a positive innovation, I'm sorry.

hi gang! had to get some yard work done since i spent friday AND saturday at the track. glad to be back with the planeteers for the cup race.

observation: yesterday, young mr busch was flat out killing them by running up high coming off turn 1 all the way into turn three. he did it consistently, at one point passing 7 trucks that way. wonder if that groove will rubber in by the last 50 laps?

too much side by side camera work already for me.

and there goes the first tire. i didn't watch pre-race: was the tire fiasco from truck series covered? my guess is goodyear will cry "too much camber!"

Brad and Max shoulda went faster on Friday though JD. Brad said it yesterday regarding qualifying, he blew it and missed the race for his team. As much as I hate the S&P phenomena Im not willing to tell these teams to not bother showing up at all or kicking them out of the field in favor of bigger teams or bigger sponsors. Thats allowing the rich to get richer without giving the little guys a shot.

It sure is disappointing that NASCAR thinks it is healthier for their sport to have several start-and-park cars taking the place of a fully sponsored Hendrick Motorsports car with yesterday's Nationwide winner and Talladega's Cup winner Brad Keselowski behind the wheel.

A potential top 10 finishing team vs. a team that will pull off the track within the first 50 laps? Which do you think makes on the on-track product better?

MV I saw CompUSA was on the car last week and live leaderboard shows them as their sponsor too. Little surprising if he had an issue because he was running well early. Better get an interview with him to clear this up of whats wrong with their car

Twitter also having issues with Twitterjacking. Folks say click on this link i.e. "Get 100 followers a day" is haunting a pharmacist. It tweets everyday same time and he isn't doing it. I did some research and it's becoming a problem.

a. Tinyurls make "blind links" and you have to trust the person posting them

b. You get to link and hacker can get into twitter and steal password. Changing PW can help. I will find out today if this business man does not tweet 'Get 100 FOLLOWERS A DAY again.'

So, Twitter has issues..and spam and xxx stuff.

Also some people take it way too seriously. I stopped following a lady who TWEETED 140 times a day! and she got bent out of shape. she has 2000 followers..who cares? It's not saving the world one tweet at a time.

Now back to the race.sorry for the digression.

In time for Digger (ugh) Hope he is not moved to SPEED.

I hope they are laying enough rubber on the track to prevent serious issues.

Out of curiosity -- If you take Digger out of the equation, how do you guys feel about the camera shot? It is pretty cool to get a feeling as to how fast these cars are really going -- like an additional Low Angle Camera shot. I saw ESPN had one in their race yesterday but didn't brand it at all and I didn't see any complaints.

when they asked the aflac question, did they say the answer driver was "at the race today but not in the race"? so, is allison at dover today? i'll be annoyed if i missed running in to him this weekend . . .

Hearing Mike Joy calling Mike Skinner's trip the garage sure made me instantly admire Scott Riggs a lot more after. Riggs was very outspoken earlier in the year when his team wanted to run entire races and were missing events at the expense of start-and-park cars. When the shoe was put on the other foot and his team became a start-and-park effort that was sending legitimate race teams home he walked out the door and wouldn't accept the last place paychecks.

I have no ill will towards the start-and-park owners. NASCAR allows them to show up to the track to collect checks instead of to compete in the races, they're doing nothing illegal based on the current rules.

I will just never understand how NASCAR justifies sending legitimate teams like the 13 and 25 home at the expense of cash collectors. It only greatly hurts the competition and gives the sport a black eye, in my opinion.

according to those who are listening, apparently there is a VERY high level of communication between those two right now. lots of discussion about hpw the car is handling at various points an d mcgrew chattering in his driver's ear.

i really intensely dislike these commercial bumpers with a heartfelt passion.

so there is finally a race starting before late afternoon, so i figure what the heck i'll spend a rare Sunday afternoon watching a whole race. flip on t.v. and what's the first thing i see, a Digger cartoon.